<p>Every now and then, The Philadelphia Birdcage Liner surprises me with something really interesting. I’m posting links to these two articles from yesterday’s (Sunday) Inquirer not to bolster any point of view or anything at all of that sort. They’re just really, really interesting. The first article deals with a University of AZ professor who just revealed that he committed Swarthmore’s one and only student murder while an undergrad back in the 50s, and spent 5 years in an institution for the criminally insane. He said he shot his Swarthmore classmate to death in their dorm because of bullying and frat hazing. At Swarthmore. Talk about a man-bites-dog story. </p>
<p>The second deals with a 27-year-old former gangster and Rose Bowl-playing defensive end, who, now armed with a PhD. is attempting to turn around one of the most troubled and dangerous high schools in the country, as its acting principal.</p>
<p>Driver,
just read those articles this morning. We get two Sunday papers so I saved the Inquirer for this snowy/rainy morning. I don’t know if anything can save the Chester-Upland School district. It’s a scary place.</p>
<p>“I did wonder, though about getting a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. apparently in two years ‘between 2000 and 2002.’”</p>
<p>I noticed that too, and the article would have benefited from a little more detail into this young man’s academic career. However, his age and the article would suggest that he entered college around 1995, so I guess it’s possible to put together all the course work necessary for those degrees over the span of seven years, even if the degrees themselves were awarded over two years. No doubt his academic path was as unconventional as the other aspects of his life.</p>
<p>Chester is a true hellhole, I’ll be rooting for this guy as he attempts the nearly impossible.</p>
<p>All those degrees would be possible in the timespan noted there - he could have done a bach/mast program - those that give the 2 degrees on the completion of the masters and then done all the PHd work over the next couple of years - it would be possible!!!</p>
<p>And why would a murderer be a prof at a college??? beyond me!!!</p>
<p>Well, I know something of Ph.D.s (I have one myself), but I’ve never met one that took only two years to achieve (except for real geniuses who got theirs by 21 or 22).</p>
<p>Wow–such cynicism, and from such unlikely sources! Are we calling this an Affirmative Action PhD? Impossible! </p>
<p>As I said, I posted those articles just because I found them interesting–not to make any particular point. However, in response to the “credentials committee,” I looked up Eboni Wilson on the Washington State University website this evening: he graduated HS in 1995, received a BS in Psychology in 1999, and a PhD in Education in 2001-2002, both degrees from WSU. No mention of a Masters degree, and both the Philadelphia Birdcage Liner article and the WSU website state that he went to school year-round during the latter part of his stay there, after an injury ended his football career and his brother was murdered. Seems to have made the Dean’s list, too. 6’-2", 255 lbs. , bench-pressed 450 lbs., and squatted 750. Sounds like just the ticket for a troubled school like Chester.</p>
<p>This is the school that was featured on yesterday’s Ted Koppel show. </p>
<p>Sadly enough, the work of Eboni Wilson was derailed by an allegation of sexual misconduct -dropped after the student admitted having been coerced. The school is a huge mess. Edison is also leaving.</p>
<p>It’s such an incredible tragedy. Chester is such a dangerous place. The whole city should be in state receivership. We have lots of great private day schools in my area, and most of them offer scholarships to kids from really bad school districts, mostly Philly and Chester. One boy from Chester, a successful “rescue,” graduated from high school in 2002 and went to college. He was murdered at a Chester train station last year, while home visiting his mother.</p>